Fri 15 January 2021:
COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Last updated: January 15, 2021, 10:04 GMT
Coronavirus Cases:
93,628,842
Deaths:
2,004,690
Recovered:
66,933,328
Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Global Covid-19 deaths surpass 2 million
The death toll from the novel coronavirus has crossed 2 million, according to tracking websites.
The United States is leading the world in most deaths caused by the virus, followed by Brazil, India and Mexico.
More than 93 million people have been infected by the virus.
Boris Johnson’s plan to test millions of pupils a week in disarray after concerns raised
Boris Johnson’s plans to test millions of schoolchildren for coronavirus every week appear to be in disarray after the UK regulator refused to formally approve the daily testing of pupils in England, The Guardian reported.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) told the government on Tuesday it had not authorised the daily use of 30-minute tests due to concerns that they give people false reassurance if they test negative.
This could lead to pupils staying in school and potentially spreading the virus when they should be self-isolating.
Biden vows to speed up virus vaccinations
US President-elect Joe Biden said he will unveil his own plans to speed up inoculations.
In unveiling a $1.9 trillion plan for dealing with the pandemic, Biden said that “this will be on the most challenging operational efforts we have ever undertaken as a nation.”
He says that “we will have to move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinated.”
Mexico has vaccinated nearly 330,000 people
A massive coronavirus vaccination campaign is continuing in Mexico with 95,095 vaccines administered Thursday, taking the total nationwide to 329,983, said Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell.
Speaking at a briefing, Lopez-Gatell said Mexico is in an “expansion phase” where large shipments of vaccines arrive in the country to be administered on a larger scale.
According to Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology, there are 1.7 million estimated cases and 156,698 deaths from the coronavirus in the country.
Brazil’s Amazonas state running out of oxygen amid COVID surge
The Brazilian state of Amazonas is running out of oxygen during a renewed surge in COVID-19 deaths, its government said on Thursday, with media reporting that people on respirators were dying of suffocation in hospitals.
The state has made a dramatic appeal to the United States to send a military transport plane to the capital city Manaus with oxygen cylinders.
Brazil is home to the world’s second-deadliest coronavirus outbreak after the US. The country has reported more than 207,000 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. Manaus was one of the first Brazilian cities struck by a spiralling death count and caseload from the first wave of the pandemic last year.
S.Africa’s DBE says january fees must still be paid
The South African Basic Education Department said that parents would still be required to pay for their children’s school fees for the month of January even though pupils were now only expected back in the classroom next month, EWN reported.
Deputy Education Minister Reginah Mhaule: “School fees in January, yes, parents will have to pay. Remember that most of our independent schools, private schools and quintiles 4 and 5, they rely on school fees from parents and the academic year has started.”
The department has announced that the reopening of both private and public schools have been delayed by another two weeks due to the current surge in COVID-19 infections in the country.
Read More Here: REOPENING OF SCHOOLS MOVED BACK BUT DBE SAYS JANUARY FEES MUST STILL BE PAID
UK records 1,248 new virus deaths, down from record level
Britain reported 1,248 new virus deaths within 28 days, down from a record high of more than 1,500 seen the previous day.
Official data also showed Britain has now administered 2,918,252 first doses of the virus vaccine, up by 278,943 on the previous day, and 437,977 second doses, up 9,745 on the previous day.
Australia on track to record zero cases for second straight day
Australia is on course to record its second straight day of zero local virus cases, helped by tougher restrictions on public movement and internal borders, but authorities continued to urge more people to get tested to track undetected cases.
Australia has been seeking to contain fresh virus outbreaks since last month with impacted regions placed under lockdown and masks made mandatory indoors but infection rates seem to have stabilised after low cases in recent days.
New South Wales (NSW), the country’s most populous state, flagged it could ease restrictions soon if testing numbers rise as more tests could help trace all unknown infections.
China urges people to avoid holiday travel
China reported the most daily cases of COVID-19 in more than 10 months on Friday, as local governments and factory owners began in offering incentives to the country’s millions of migrant workers not to return to their home provinces for the Lunar New Year holidays in February.
The outbreak is centred on the northeast where more than 28 million people are currently under lockdown.
The outbreak is the most severe in months and authorities are stepping up efforts to encourage people to avoid all non-essential travel during next month’s Lunar New Year when hundreds of millions of Chinese travel back to their hometowns. For many of the country’s 280 million migrant workers it is the only time they get to see their families in rural provinces.
Delta remains cautious after massive $12.4bn loss in 2020
Delta Air Lines closed the books on a disastrous 2020 with a comparatively small fourth-quarter loss, and executives expect a few more rocky months before — they hope — widespread coronavirus vaccinations and testing might salvage something of the upcoming summer travel season.
Delta on Thursday reported a quarterly loss of $755m and $12.4bn in losses for all of 2020. It is the largest annual loss in the history of the airline, which dates to the 1920s, and the global pandemic ended a decade in which Delta churned out a profit each and every year.
Much like most of last year, the 2021 outlook for Delta and other airlines is intertwined with how quickly the US and other nations can vaccinate enough of their citizens against the coronavirus so that travel restrictions can be eased.
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